"Now come along, Gale," Mr. Eastrey said, at last, "the Kitty is
close by."
Following his master, the lad went out from the store and along the
wharf and, presently, stepped upon a smack on which several men,
and a boy, were at work.
"Harvey," Mr. Eastrey said, "I have brought you a new lad. He will
sail with you, tomorrow. I have a very good account of him, and I
think you will find him quick, and ready."
"So as he's not up to tricks, I shall do very well with him, I
don't doubt," the skipper said; "but boys are an awful trouble, the
first voyage or two. However, I will do my best for him.
"Are you ready to begin work at once, young 'un? What is your
name?"
"William Gale, and I am quite ready."
"Very well, Bill, chuck off your jacket, then, and pass those bags
along from the wharf."
The boy was soon hard at work. He was a little disappointed at
finding that the skipper was, in dress and manner, in no way
superior to the rest of the crew. The Kitty was a yawl of
forty-five tons, deep in the water and broad in the beam. Her deck
was dirty and, at present, in disorder; and she did not come up to
the perfection of neatness and cleanliness which William Gale had
read of, in the pages of his favorite author. However--as he told
himself--there must, of course, be a good deal of difference
between a man of war, where the crew have little to do but to keep
things neat and bright, and a fishing smack.
The work upon which he was, at present, engaged was the
transferring of the provisions for the voyage from the quay to the
hold. These consisted principally of barrels of salt meat, and bags
of biscuits; but there were a large tin of tea, a keg of sugar, a
small barrel of molasses--or treacle--two or three sacks of
potatoes, pepper and salt. Then there was a barrel of oil for the
lamps, coils of spare rope of different sizes, and a number of
articles of whose use William Gale had not the most remote idea.
After two hours' work, the skipper looked at his watch.
"Time to knock off work," he said, "and we've got pretty near
everything on board. Now, be sure you are all here by six in the
morning. Tide will begin to run out at eight, and I don't want to
lose any of it.
"Bill, you are to come home with me, for the night."
It was but a hundred yards to the sailor's cottage, which stood on
the edge of the sharp rise, a short distance back from the river.
"Here, wife," he said as he entered, "I've got a new apprentice,
and I expect he's pretty hungry; I am, I can tell you, and I hope
tea's ready. His name's Bill, and he's going to stop here,
tonight."
"Tea is quite ready, John, and there's plenty of mackerel. I
thought you would not be getting them again, for a spell.
"Do you like fish?" she asked the boy.
"I don't know, ma'am--I never tasted them."
"Bless me!" the woman cried, in astonishment; "never tasted fish!
To think, now!"
"I've been brought up in a workhouse," William said, coloring a
little as he spoke, for he knew the prejudice against the House.
"Ah!" she said, "we have had a good many of that sort; and I can't
say as I likes 'em, for the most part. But you haven't got the look
about you. You don't seem that sort."
"I hope I shall turn out none the worse for it," the boy said; "at
any rate, I'll do my best."
"And none can't do more," the good woman said, briskly. "I like
your looks, Bill, and you've a nice way of talking. Well, we shall
see."
In a few minutes tea was upon the table, and Will sat down with the
skipper, his wife, and two daughters--girls of ten and twelve. The
lad enjoyed his meal immensely, and did full justice to the fish.
"You will have plenty of them, before you eat your next tea on
shore. We pretty nigh live on them, when we are on the fishing
grounds."
"The same kind of fish as this?"
"No, mackerel are caught in small boats, with a different sort of
gear, altogether. We get them, sometimes, in the trawl--not shoals
of 'em, but single fish, which we call horse mackerel."
After tea, the skipper lit his pipe; and his wife, after clearing
up, took some knitting, and sat down and began to question the new
apprentice.
"It's lucky, for you, you found such a good friend," she said, when
he had finished his story. "That's how it is you are so different
from other boys who have been apprenticed from the House. I should
never have thought you had come from there.
"And she gave you good advice as to how you should go on, I'll be
bound."
"Yes, ma'am," Will said, "and I hope I shall act up to it."
"I hope so, Bill; but you'll find it hard work to keep yourself as
you should do, among them boys. They are an awful lot, them smack
boys."
"Not worse nor other boys," her husband said.
"Not worse than might be looked for, John, but they are most of 'em
pretty bad. The language they use make my blood run cold, often.
They seems to take a delight in it. The hands are bad enough, but
the boys are dreadful.
"I suppose you don't swear, Will. They look too sharp after you, in
the House; but if you take my advice, boy, don't you ever get into
the way of bad language. If you once begin, it will grow on you.
There ain't no use in it, and it's awful to hear it."
"I will try not to do so," Will said firmly. "Mother--I always call
her mother--told me how bad it was, and I said I'd try."
"That's right, Will, you stick to that, and make up your mind to
keep from liquor, and you'll do."
"What's the use of talking that way?" the skipper said. "The boy's
sure to do it. They all do."
"Not all, John. There's some teetotalers in the fleet."
"I won't say I'll never touch it," Will said, "for I don't know,
yet, how I may want it--they say when you are cold and wet through,
at sea, it is really good--but I have made up my mind I'll never
drink for the sake of drinking. Half the men--ay, nineteen out of
twenty in the House--would never have been there, I've heard mother
say, if it hadn't been for drink; and I told her she need never
fear I'd take to that."
"If you can do without it on shore, you can do without it at sea,"
the skipper said. "I take it when I'm on shore, but there's not a
drop goes out on the Kitty. Some boats carries spirits, some don't.
We don't. The old man puts chocolate on board instead and, of a wet
night, a drink of hot chocolate's worth all the rum in the world.
"As for giving it up altogether, I see no call for it. There are
men who can't touch liquor, but they must go on till they get
drunk. That sort ought to swear off, and never touch it at all.
It's worse than poison, to some. But for a man who is content with
his pint of beer with his dinner, and a glass of grog of an
evening, I see no harm in it."
"Except that the money might be better spent, John."
"It might be, or it might not. In my case, the saving would be of
no account. The beer costs three pence, and the rum as much more.
That's six pence a day. I'm only at home ten days, once every two
months; so it come to thirty shillings a year, and I enjoy my
dinner, and my evening pipe, all the better for them."
"The thing is this, Will: you don't know, when you begin, whether
you are going to be one of the men who--like my John--is content
with his pint of beer, and his glass of grog; or whether you will
be one of them as can't touch liquor without wanting to make beasts
of themselves. Therefore the safest plan is, don't touch it at
all--leastways, till you've served your time. The others may laugh
at you, at first; but they won't like you any the worse for it."
"Thank you, ma'am. I will make up my mind to that--not to touch
liquor till I am out of my apprenticeship. After that, I can see
for myself."
"That's right, lad. When you come back from your first trip, you
can join the lodge, if you like. I and my girls are members."
"Thank you, ma'am," Will said; "but I won't take any pledge. I have
said I will not do it, and I don't see any use in taking an oath
about it. If I am so weak as to break my word, I should break my
oath. I don't know why I shouldn't be able to trust myself to do as
I am willed, in that way as in any other. If I'd a craving after
it, it might be different; but I never have tasted it, and don't
want to taste it, so I don't see why I can't trust myself."
"Yes, I think as how you can trust yourself, Will," the woman said,
looking at him; "and I've noticed often that it isn't them who say
most, as do most.
"Now, I daresay you are sleepy. There's my boy's bed for you. He is
fourth hand in one of the smacks at sea."
The next morning Will was out of bed the instant he was called,
excited at the thought that he was going really to sea. The
skipper's wife had tea made, and the table laid.
"Here," she said, "are some oilskin suits my boy has given up. They
will suit you well enough for size and, although they are not as
good as they were, they will keep out a good deal of water, yet.
You will get half-a-crown a week, while you are at sea so, by the
time you get back, you will have enough to buy yourself a fresh
suit."
Half an hour later Will was at work, getting two spare sails and
the last of the stores on board.
"Now, Bill, come below," the skipper said. "I will show you your
bunk."
The cabin was larger than Will had expected. It was about twelve
feet square, and lofty enough for a tall man to stand upright. By
the side of the companion stairs was a grate, on which a kettle was
boiling; and this, as he afterwards learned, was a fixture, except
when cooking was going on, and the men could have tea whenever they
chose. Round three sides of the cabin extended lockers, the tops
forming seats. Above were what looked like cupboards, running round
the sides; but the skipper pushed open a sliding door, and showed a
bed place.
"That is your bunk," he said. "You see, there are two at the end,
and one each side, above, and as many under them--eight bunks, in
all. You will have to help Jack--that is the other boy--in cooking,
and make yourself useful, generally, in the day. The crew are
divided into two watches, but you will not have much to do on deck.
If the night is clear you can sleep, except when the trawl is being
got up. Of a thick or stormy night, you will keep your watch.
"Now, as the other lad is more handy on deck than you are, you can
take charge here. All you have to do is to see that the kettle is
kept boiling. You can come on deck and lend a hand, if wanted; but
you must come down sometimes, and see the fire is all right."
After inspecting the contents of the kettle, and seeing that it was
full, Will climbed up the steep ladder again; and was soon working
away, coiling down the ropes with the other lad, while the crew
hoisted sails and got the boat under weigh.
"Are there only two hands under the captain?" he asked the other
boy.
"There are two others," the boy said. "They will come on board
after we get out of the river, and you'll see they will be just as
drunk as they can stand."
"What, drunk at this time in the morning?"
"Yes, they got drunk last night and, as they won't have fairly
slept it off, they will be beginning again this morning. The old
man will look them up, and get them off."
"Who is the old man?"
"Old Eastrey, of course, stupid.
"I wish they were all on board. There's a fine breeze, and I hate
wasting four or five hours off the bar, waiting for the hands to
come off."
"I wonder the old man stands it," Will said.
"He can't help it," the other answered. "Scarce a smack goes out of
Yarmouth without half the hands being drunk, when she starts. They
don't get much chance afterwards, you see; and they sleep it off by
night, so it don't make any odds. Our skipper is always sober, and
that's more than many of them are. I have gone out when me and the
other boy were the only two sober on board."
"But isn't it very dangerous?"
"Dangerous? No," the boy said, "one of them is sure to be sober
enough to manage to stand at the helm and, though I've bumped
pretty heavy on the sands, sometimes, we generally strike the
channel. There is no fear of anything else. We never start, if a
gale is blowing; and the smacks are safe in anything but a gale.
They are too deep to capsize and, at sea, there's no more
drinking."
The smack dropped down the river and stood, off and on, near its
entrance. Will was delighted with the bright sea, dotted with ships
and fishing craft. The sun was shining, and there was just enough
wind to send the smack along briskly through the water, without
raising any waves sufficiently high to give her a perceptible
motion. At eight o'clock the captain went on shore in the boat,
with a man, to look after the absent sailors; leaving only one hand
and the two boys on board. At ten the boat was again seen, coming
out.
"One, two, three, four," the boy said, "he has got them both. Now
we shall be off."
The boat was soon alongside. The two drunken men were helped on
board and, at once, went below to sleep themselves sober. Then the
boat was hoisted on board and, the second hand taking the helm, the
Kitty started fairly on her way.
"Now," the captain said, "let us get her a little tidy."
It took some hours' work before the deck was washed, the ropes
coiled down, and everything ship-shape. By the time all was done,
the low coast of Norfolk had sunk below the horizon, and the smack
was far out at sea. There was more motion now, but the wind was
still light.
The skipper was pleased with the earnestness and alacrity which the
new apprentice showed.
"Now, Jack," he said to the other boy, "take Will below with you,
and show him how to make tea."
The process of tea making, on board a smack, is not a difficult one
to master; the sole operation consisting in putting a few more
spoonfuls of tea into the kettle boiling over the fire, when it
begins to get low, and filling up with fresh water. But, simple as
the thing was, William Gale did not learn it on that occasion. He
had been feeling somewhat shaky, even while on deck; and the heat
of the cabin, and the smell of some grease which Jack had just put
in the frying pan, preparatory to cooking some fish brought off
from shore, completed the effect of the rising sea. Until next
morning he was not in a condition to care, even had the tea
remained unmade to the end of time. He did not go below, but lay
under the shelter of a tarpaulin, on deck.
In the morning, the skipper roused him up.
"Now, lad, just take off your coat and shirt. Here is a bucket of
water. Put your head in that, and give yourself a good sluice; and
then come down and have a cup of tea, and a bit of biscuit, and you
will find yourself all right again."
Will followed the instructions, and found himself wonderfully
better.
"Now, lad, lend a hand in tidying up on deck. There is nothing like
work, for keeping off seasickness. Jack shall cook, for today."
The boy set to work with a will; and felt so refreshed that, by one
o'clock, he was able to go below and take his share of the dinner.
At present, while on their way to the fishing grounds, their meals
were taken at the same time as on shore but, once at work, there
were only two meals a day. Of these the first was taken when the
fishing was over, the fish cleaned, picked, weighed, and
packed--the hour varying between nine and eleven. The second meal
was taken before the trawl was lowered, at six or seven o'clock in
the evening.
After five days' sailing, the smack arrived off the fishing ground;
but another two days were spent in finding the fleet, as the
fishing grounds extend over a distance of some hundreds of miles.
When they came up with it, William Gale was astonished at the vast
number of boats that dotted the sea.
In the Yarmouth fleet there are between four and five hundred
vessels and, were it not that the most perfect order and discipline
reign, the number of accidents which would occur, from so many
boats fishing close to each other at night, would be terrible. The
fleet is commanded by one of the most experienced skippers, who is
termed the admiral. His authority is absolute. He leads the fleet
to the grounds he selects for fishing and, by signals by day and
rockets by night, issues his orders--when the nets are to be
lowered down and drawn up, the course which is to be steered, and
the tack on which they are to stand.
The fishing is entirely done at night. The trawls are let down
about dusk, and the fleet attached to these moving anchors forge
slowly ahead and to leeward, until daybreak. Then the trawls are
got in, and the fleet sail in a body to the spot where the admiral
decides that fishing shall be continued in the evening. At 10
o'clock at night the trawls are hauled in, and the nets emptied.
All hands are called up for this operation. When it is concluded,
the trawl is again lowered and the fish cleaned and packed; by the
light of a torch formed of rope, dipped in tar. The watch who have
hitherto been on deck turn in, and the others remain on deck until
morning, when the nets are again hauled in.
There is not, indeed, much for the watch to do; as the smack needs
no steering, and the attention of the men on deck is directed
chiefly to see that no other smack drifts down upon them. Should
there appear any danger of this, a flare is lit to warn the other
smacksmen. The trawl rope is slacked out or hauled in, as the case
may require and, generally, volleys of strong language pass between
the respective crews.
The trawl beam is a heavy pole, some 30 or 35 feet long. At each
end are fitted strong iron hoops, of about three feet in diameter.
These keep the pole from touching the ground, and keep open the
mouth of the net; one side of which is attached to the pole, while
the other drags along the bottom. The net resembles in shape a
long, deep purse; and has various pockets and other contrivances by
which, when a fish has once entered its mouth, it is prevented from
returning.
The trawl rope--which is from 40 to 80 yards in length, according
to the depth of water--is hauled in by means of a winch; and its
great weight taxes the united strength of the crew, to get it level
with the bulwark. When it is up, the net is hauled on board, the
small end is opened, and the fish tumble on to the deck. They are
then separated and packed in trunks--as the wooden cases, in which
they are sent to market, are called.
Soles fetch by far the highest price, and fortunate are the crew
who get a good haul of this fish; for the men work upon shares, an
account being kept of all the sales made, during the fishing trip.
The owner deducts the cost of the provisions and stores which have
been put on board, and takes one or more shares for the vessel.
Each man has one share, the skipper and mate receiving rather a
larger proportion than the others; thus the men have a lively
interest in each haul, and great is the satisfaction when the net
comes up well filled, and there is seen to be a good proportion of
soles among the contents.
The coarse fish--as they are called--include brill, haddock, hake,
ling, whiting, and many others. Turbot are also caught. In each
haul there would probably be a vast number of objects which would
delight the heart of a naturalist. Dog fish, too, are sometimes
taken; as are conger eels, and horse mackerel. Stones, and oysters,
too, come up in the nets; and the latter are the betes-noires of
the fishing. Sometimes, when the fleet gets over a bed of oysters,
a score of nets will be lost in a single night for, when the bag
becomes full of oysters, its weight is so great that the utmost
power of the fishermen's exertions, on the winch, is insufficient
to lift it from the bottom; and there is nothing to be done but to
cut the rope, and abandon trawl and net. Upon these occasions the
language applied to the admiral is scarcely of a kind for polite
ears.
The food of the crews, when once upon the fishing ground, consists
almost wholly of fish. With the exception of soles, each man may
select any fish he fancies from the glistening mass upon the deck;
and the amount which each consumed at a meal at first astonished
William Gale, accustomed as he was to meager workhouse rations. He
soon, however, found himself able to keep up with the rest; but the
operation of frying seemed sometimes interminable, so many times
had the pan to be filled and emptied.
Hard biscuits were eaten with the fish, and the whole washed down
with copious draughts of tea, without milk. Two or three times a
week the men would, as a change, have a meal of salt meat; and on
Sundays a duff--or pudding--of flour and currants was made.
A few days after joining the fleet the weather changed, the sky
became gloomy and threatening. The wind blew hard, and a heavy sea
got up. Will found that keeping watch at night--which was pleasant
enough on a fine, star-light night--was a very different thing,
now. It was no joke looking ahead with the wind blowing fiercely,
and showers of spray dashing into the eyes; and yet a vigilant
watch must be kept for, if the rockets which ordered the hauling of
the trawl were not noticed, some other smack, moving rapidly when
released from the drag of its net, might at any moment come into
collision with the smack.
Still more important was it to notice upon which side the trawl was
to be lowered, after being emptied; and upon which tack the vessel
was to proceed. For a mistake in this respect would be certain to
bring the smack across another; in which case the trawl ropes would
become entangled--involving, in a heavy sea, the certain loss of
one or the other. Many of the smacks carry dogs, and it is found
that these become even better watchers than their masters; for they
can be relied on to call the attention of the watch, by sharp
barking, to the letting up of the rocket, however distant.
A rocket may seem to be an easy thing to see but, in a large fleet,
the stern-most smacks may be three or four miles away from the
leaders and, in a dark, thick night, it is exceedingly difficult to
make out even a rocket, at that distance.
The wind increased to a gale. The trawls were up now, and the fleet
lay to. It may be explained that this operation is performed by
bringing a ship nearly into the eye of the wind, and then hauling
the foresail across, and belaying the sheet. The aft sail--or
mizzen--is then hauled tight, and the tiller lashed amidships. As
the fore-sail pays the vessel off from the wind, the after sail
brings her up again; and she is thus kept nearly head to sea, and
the crew go below, and wait till the storm abates.